4.3

An excellent choice to find our about the #NeverAgain movement from the inside. This book should be required reading for all high school journalism students!

I am so proud of the movements and action the students started after a moment of tragedy. These are their writings and I can only hope they continue to make positive change in this world

As a secondary journalism teacher myself, these stories resonated with me. All of us in education live in fear of the "what if;" it's been on my mind ever since Columbine, when I was a younger, much less-experienced educator. These stories highlight both the bravery exhibited by many of the students and teachers at MSD along with their activism. I found many of them to be very self-reflective, as student journalists grappled with the ethics of covering an event they were also part of. This should be required reading for every lawmaker in this country.

So I just finished this book, and despite the fact that I feel like crying, I also have a lot of thoughts.

The first surround the book itself. The fact that these students and teachers managed to write so well about the horror they went through on that Valentines Day is impressive, as is the activism they’ve pushed for since then.

The teachers, the students… They went through hell. They’re making sure everyone knows that, and they’re doing it well. As they’re finishing high school and starting college or their lives, it’s not an easy time in general. The book hits a place very close to home for me when I worry about the fact that my siblings are still in high school.

Which leads to my second set of thoughts about gun violence and mass shootings.

The fact that gun violence is so pervasive in our country. We lose so many people every year to gun violence and many more people get hurt… Particularly in communities that don’t get the same coverage as majority white communities. (And this completely leaves out the conversation on how people of color shot by the police are treated)

We see so many mass shootings that we’ve become numb for it. I’ve actually said “I’m glad school’s out. There won’t be any school shootings for a few months.”

And I can’t explain how fucked up that is.

I remember pre-Sandy Hook, but I was still in school after it. I’ve been in lock down drills where they bang on the doors. My parents didn’t have to think as much about sending me to school and worry about me getting shot. In. A. School.

Now, I jump when I hear balloons pop on a hot day. I’ve had nightmares about being stuck in these situations. I worry about my brothers going to school. Because it’s not like they haven’t had gun threats before.

Do you know how fucked up that is?

The oldest is 16.

He’s the same age as the children who died in Parkland.

I have a sister who is four.

She’s almost the same age as the children that died in Sandy Hook.

I think about how pervasive this shit is, and I think about the fact that I’m just talking about schools here, but they happen elsewhere. Places of Worship. Clubs. Concerts.

It’s been seven years since Sandy Hook this year.

It’s been twelve years since Virginia Tech.

It’s been twenty years since Columbine.

And those are just the schools.

But we have done very little to make a change here. We see other countries start making changes the next day like in New Zealand, but it’s been almost twenty years since Columbine and our national government has done very little to make it stop.

We’ve had 71 mass shootings in 2019. It’s March.

So someone tell me why we don’t fucking change.

This is a hard book to review. Of course this book is powerful and means a lot, but there wasn't that umph that I was really expecting. I think the biggest problem that I read it so close to where the actual event happen that there wasn't that shock factor to it. I don't know. I really, really, really wanted to like it, but for some reason, it just fell flat for me.

This was equal parts horrifying and inspiring. I am in awe of the grace and maturity these students wrote with as they documented their experiences, thoughts, and feelings.

This is a very painful review to give because of the tragedy that surrounds the book. The Parkland shootings were devastating and I applaud the teachers who decided to give their students a platform from which they could voice their experiences. The book acts as a compendium of the Parkland journalists' various essays from the year following the shooting, some of which were published in national publications. I am not writing any of this to try to downplay the importance of the event or to silence the victims.
From the editor's opening (written by faculty advisors), the writing is cringy. There is very little beauty, complexity in style, or even variation in word choice. This thread continues with few exceptions for the remainder of the essays. Redundancy is also an issue, with several articles repeating material covered earlier in the book or, in some instances, earlier in the writer's own essay. The book could have been, and probably should have been, much shorter.
The heavy-handed sense of entitlement is sickening, quite frankly. For instance, there are a few essays that brag on the publication's ability to remain unbiased. They're written with such a condescending and clearly skewed view that I was prompted to check and make sure that the article wasn't intended to be satire. I get that they're only high schoolers, but if you plan on publishing a book of their work, you need to make sure the content carries weight. Their advisers owed it to their students to ensure that the book was properly edited and fact-checked. Unfortunately, the work falls woefully short of expectation.